The Marauding Seven - Year 1

The Marauding Seven - Year 1 (Ch. 4)

The First Day

Lily sat up in bed and smiled. She couldn't believe her good fortune - all five of her friends were in Gryffindor, with her. And one jerk. Well, she mused as she began to brush her hair, you can't win 'em all!

In the bed next to her, Kate began to stir, before sitting bolt upright. "I'm at Hogwarts!" she screeched, successfully waking up Alex and Wye.

"Thanks a lot, Kate," mumbled Alex as she began to tumble out of bed. "What's the time Lily?" She shook her head. She couldn't understand morning people - why?

"About seven thirty," replied Lily. "If you want breakfast you'd better get up!" At the mention of breakfast, Wye, who hadn't moved for the last five minutes, everyone assuming she'd dropped off again, sat up and yawned. She got out of bed, made it, and began to pull on a pair of light green jeans and a canary yellow vest top.

"Where'd you get green jeans?" asked Alex. She had plain dark blue ones on, and an old light blue T-shirt. She figured if she had robes on over the top, what was the point of looking particularly stylish underneath? She'd save that for the weekends.

"Somewhere in Dub-" "Aaarghhh!" "-lin last holiday. Lily - why did you just scream?"

"My hair! It - just - won't - go right!"

"I get that problem too," she turned towards Kate and Alex. "Be thankful you have straight hair!" Wye added.

"But your hair's so nice. Your's too Lil," said Kate. "Curls suit you two." Alex nodded.

"Oh, hurry up! It's nearly eight and we have to get to breakfast!" cried Kate.

"Chill Kate! Lessons don't start 'till nine!" said Lily.

"There!" said Wye. She'd successfully wrestled Lily's hair into a plait. She ran a brush through her own, leaving it loose and picked her wand up from her beside table. Then, she packed her quills, ink, and parchment into her bag. "Are you guys nearly ready?" she asked.

"Yup," replied Alex, tucking her wand into her robes.

"Me too," said Lily, making her bed.

"Umm...yup. I think I'm ready too. What have we got first?" asked Kate.

"Dunno, but our timetable's will be on the notice board. Race you!" cried Wye, flying out the bedroom.

"She's getting away!" yelped Lily, jumping up from her bed. Then there was a muffled thud, and an "Ow!" in a distinctly male sounding voice. "James!" yelled Lily and she began to pounce. Help soon arrived though - if you can call it that. You see, Kate and Alex rushed out of the girl's dormitory to stop James getting battered to a pulp, but then, Remus and Sirius came barrelling out of the boy's dormitory at the same time. The result? Four more people saying quite loudly - "Ow!"

"I've got your timetables...what's going on here then?" asked Wye with a cheeky grin on her face and a glint in her eye. "What are you guys up to...?"

"Shut up Wye," said Lily as she disentangled herself from James. Needles to say he was looking a bit shocked. He hadn't expected to be yelled at first thing in the morning, before he'd really woken up. Wye handed him his timetable.

"We've got Charms, then Transfiguration, Lunch, Double Potions, and Defence against the Dark Arts. Hmm. Shouldn't be too bad, except for potions. Kyle (James' brother) said the teacher is horrible - and he hates Gryffindors."

"Great. Sounds just wonderful," said Alex sarcastically from the ground. James pulled her up, then Kate. He left Lily were she was, earning another icy cold glare.

"Well!" said Sirius cheerfully from the ground, where he was leaning against the wall. "Let's get to breakfast!" With this, he stood up and galloped to the portrait hole, disappearing with James hot on his tail. Remus and Wye looked at each other, shrugged and ran after them. Alex hauled Lily up and pushed her towards the portrait hole. With Kate helping, they got her into a grudging jog, and arrived at the Great Hall ten minutes later. The others weren't there. Then the doors burst open.

"We got lost!"

Remus sat in Potions, severely bored. He was quite the cook at home, and had assumed that he'd like Potions. Unfortunately, he hadn't entered into the calculation a teacher. Professor Gambol was horrible. There was no other word for it. The Gryffindors had Potions with the Hufflepuffs, and though Gambol didn't like Hufflepuffs he despised Gryffindors. Somehow, between them, they'd already managed to lose 20 points for no reason whatsoever.

"Add the monkshood to the water when it is at precisely 20° and stir in the powdered beetle eyes afterwards. Leave to simmer for five minutes, then sprinkle two pinches of powdered Unicorn horn. Add two handfuls of carefully shredded daisy roots and then clear away your things. The potion needs to simmer for 20 minutes. While you're waiting you will copy down these notes on the Pondering Potion we are concocting today," Gambol paused, and looked around the room. "Yet first, I believe I shall rearrange your seating." At this, Remus' head snapped up. He was sitting next to James and Kate, and was quite happy where he was.

"Lupin, next to Patil, I think...Potter next to, hmmm. How about...Evans?" with this Gambol grinned wickedly. He'd obviously picked up on the hostility between the two Gryffindors. He continued to sort them out, going mainly Gryffindor/Hufflepuff. However, there were too many Hufflepuffs, so some of them got to sit next to each other. James suggested splitting him and Lily up - they were both Gryffindors. In on the act Lily smiled sweetly at James, then Gambol.

"Yeah, right," said Gambol, very uncharacteristically. "Now be quiet, or ten points from Gryffindor." Lily and James glared at each other, and began getting out their ingredients.

Defence against the Dark Art with Professor Payne is really just an awful lot of note-taking, Lily concluded as she packed up her things. Still, she'd got to sit next to Wye. She wasn't mean, just boring. She sighed, and hauled her bag onto her shoulders. She couldn't wait to get back to the common room and chat about their first day with the others...except maybe James. Why did she have to sit next to him in potions! Speaking of Potions, Gambol was the only Professor who'd given them homework - find and copy don, the properties of monkshood, aconite and wolfsbane. What a trick question! They were the same plant.

Lily was sprawled on a sofa in the common room. She'd looked aconite up in her 1001 Magical Herbs and Fungi book and neatly written down the answer. It was then passed round the circle of First Years and copied, but she snatched it up just before it reached James, and handed it to Remus.

Early that night the girls headed off to their dormitory. They were planning on having a gossip fest, and didn't really want to boys listening in. Once the girls were gone, James sat Sirius and Remus down on the couch opposite his chair. He needed to talk.

"Why does Lily hate me?" he asked them.

"Ah, buddy old chum," started Sirius. "She doesn't. It's obvious!" he cried.

"You didn't tell me what was obvious, Sirius dear," said James in a sugary sweet tone.

"I believe that's Remus, dear friend's, job," replied Sirius nonchalantly.

"Nice sentence, Sirius. Real nice," said Remus.

"Remus...carry on..." said James, clearly indicating him to get a move on.

"Well, she likes you," he said, with a smile.

"I thought we'd been over this. She doesn't, that's the problem!"

"Yes, she does. She, uh..." Remus trailed off.

"Fancies you!" cried Sirius, making the few Gryffindors who were still up to look in their direction.

"Uh, yeah. So she'd trying to ignore it by...ignoring you, I guess." Remus finished up.

"She's not exactly ignoring me. She's trying to tear my hair out."

"Yes, good man, so how does it feel to be in love?" Sirius cut in.

"I DON'T LIKE HER! Even if she does like me," James added in a much quieter voice.

"Yes, old pal. Course not," said Sirius in a tone that convinced nobody he meant it. James just glared at him.